We take Memphis out very early this morning for a good walk before we feed her. This morning, as we reached the end of our street and turned down the next one, we noticed two of our cats, Shadow and Spud, following along a few yards behind. We tried to discourage them. Tuffy P even tried her amazing finger-snaps....but no, they were determined. Finally, I had to turn back and walk home with them as Tuffy continued to walk the dog.
The Basin Brothers
Sarah Jayde Williams and the Sharecroppers band
Danny Poulard
The beginning 20 seconds has a technical problem, but bear with it. This is some excellent playing
I had been hoping for plenty of rain over the past couple days to help fruit some wild mushrooms. There was a little the other night, but it may not be enough to really get things going. Nevertheless, I'm going to take Memphis out for a run in the forest in the morning, and I will bring along my basket and my field guide just in case.
Memphis loves our trips to the forest, and I'm enjoying them too!
Check out this story in Spacing Toronto about a woman who got her bike back!
I found this single mushroom, not in some forest but on my neighbour's lawn while I was taking Memphis out for a walk. After we returned, I carefully removed it from the ground. The cap was perhaps 4 inches across. There was no visible vulva on the base of the stem. There was a ring with the remnants of a veil. It had gills that were brown and close and not attached to the stem. I tried to bruise the cap and saw no evidence of bruising of any colour. I sliced a bit off the bottom of the stem and there was no bleeding or any yellow. It smelled, well, mushroomy, with a hint of anise. I took a spore print, which you see in the picture. My brother the trout, Salvelinas Fontinalis, helped me go through the identification process.
This mushroom appears to be an Agaricus, but I'm not sure which of the many varieties it is. My guess was Agaricus campestris, the meadow mushroom.
Tonight I made a mushroom omelette as follows:
I chopped up the mushroom and gently sauteed it in salted butter. Then I beat up two eggs with a fork and dropped them into a hot buttered pan, moving the pan around to spread the eggs. As the omelette solidified, I added the sauteed mushrooms to the middle, and folded the two sides over the middle. A little salt and pepper and it was ready. I enjoyed it with a cold beer.
The mushroom was very tasty, sort of like a concentration of white mushrooms. Very nice.
accordion porn (oh baby baby)
sakatoon crumble (smells so sweet)
petosa accordion for sale (Clifton Chenier played a Petosa)
meester anchovy (yep)
wine wankers (Har)
different kinds of drums (and drummers too)
hornpipe creative commons (I like the Sailor's Hornpipe)
Patychky (tastes from my childhood)
panzerotti calzone difference (for the discerning junk food enthusiast)
storm 6" anchovy sale (I'll take two)
Apparently, City union protestors were recently heard chanting Hey ho hey ho Mayor Miller's got to go.
Interesting business. After all, Toronto Mayor Miller is well known as the labour Mayor, as a union supporter and as the so-called NDP mayor. Miller is about as left of centre a mayor as CUPE is going to get, no?
Now that Mr. Miller, who has been a spender, is trying to cut back, first freezing management salaries and now fighting for a less expensive sick leave plan for City workers, he has a problem, finding himself at loggerheads with his support base. The folks at CUPE should be careful what they ask for, though. A different Mayor may not help their already unpopular cause.
A recent Ipsos-Reid poll suggests Miller's support has dropped off and that he would lose to either John Tory or George Smitherman if either potential candidate ran against him. Interesting. Tory wants to be a politician but he's had trouble winning, both in provincial and municipal politics. I think Smitherman would be an excellent candidate, but he has dismissed speculation that he will run next municipal election.
Beyond obviously wanting a settlement in the civic worker dispute, I'm very interested in watching the municipal politics unfold. Can Miller salvage his support with a strike settlement? Will residents forget the strike by the time the election comes along? Who will run against Miller next election? He came into office with broom in hand, apparently to sweep away the old stale politics of the past, but beyond pushing forward his transit agenda, it seems as if he hasn't done all that much.
One of the two main stems of this maple crashed down in the storm today. This is about 3 blocks from Anchovy World Headquarters. On closer examination, it's amazing the tree stayed up as long as it did. Well over half the trunk was rotted and along the top where the trunks join, there are several large bracket fungi feeding off it. The neighbourhood weekend lumberjacks cleared the street with chain saws early this afternoon, and the street was passable again by the time the city managers came by and put up some pylons. There were a number of houses in the neighbourhood that had trees damaged from the storm today. The tree in the photograph was the most dramatic I saw.
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